Grammar Challenge for Everyone Else: Here is the English translation; put it into another language.
Translation
This is the sign of Arniadas who was destroyed by fiery-eyed Ares fighting close to the ships on river Arachthos’s flows, greatly excelling in the uproar of the battle that brings lament.
Extra challenge: Explain the names and titles of at least ten historical rulers.
Extra extra challenge, just for the Japanese learners: Explain the names of at least ten eras.
Challenge not for the Japanese learners Create new Go terms
Okay, the text is in an archaic alphabet. Based on the B-shaped letter E and the M-shaped S, I’d say it’s from around Corinth. So far I’ve got:
σανατο δε αρνιαδαξ αροπον τον δολεσε?αρεσβαρναμενονπαρα ναυσιν επα?θθοι ορ hοεαισι πολλον αριστευτοντα καταστον οϚεσανα
Something about Arniadax who did something at the ships. I can’t read most of the letters clearly and I can’t make any sense out of most of the words. Have you got a transcript? I could translate that, I guess.
Edit: There’s an S-shaped B, so it’s from Corinth. I also want to believe it’s written as verses, but I’m really not sure.
I’m no good with go terms (have yet to start trying to read my Japanese go books), but I bet you’ll like this website, featuring a dictionary of Japanese go terms.
Ah, I’m so tempted to start learning kanji again… because they’re distinct pictures rather than strings of letters, there’s a sort of fun “collectability” about ingesting them. I’ve got to keep myself focused .__.
Not Homeric, just hexameter. The dialect is doric, as one can see by Σᾶμα for σῆμα and the use of the letter F for /w/, that was out of use in the Attic-Ionic dialects. It says:
“This is the tombstone of Arniades; pretty-face Ares destroyed him while he was fighting (I guess?) at the something something ships by Aratthos, him, who was by far the best at the … moaning?” Something like that, I’ll check the translation you provided…
In The Big Lebowski, Donny asks what a pederast is. I honestly had to look up catamite, right now. It’s not a story the philologists would tell me.
But I’m kinda disappointed about myself, I could have done better with that inscription. I should have expected the first words to either mean ‘here lies’, ‘this is the grave of’ or ‘the council has decided’. Can you hit me with another?
In Latin, numbers are adjectives and, like all adjectives, agree with noun that they describe. In this table I’ve put them in their masculine, dictionary form.
International
Numeral
Cardinal
Ordinal
1
I
unus
primus
2
II
duo
secundus
3
III
tres
tertius
4
IV (IIII)
quattuor
quartus
5
V
quinque
quintus
6
VI
sex
sextus
7
VII
septem
septimus
8
VIII
octo
octavus
9
IX
novem
nonus
10
X
decem
decimus
11
XI
undecim
undecimus
12
XII
duodecim
duodecimus
13
XIII
tredecim
tertiusdecimus
14
XIV
quattuordecim
quartus decimus
15
XV
quindecim
quintus decimus
16
XVI
sedecim
sextus decimus
17
XVII
septendecim
septus decimus
18
XVIII
duodeviginti
duodevicesimus
19
XIX
undeviginti
undevicesimus
20
XX
viginti
vicesimus
21
XXI
viginti unus
22
XXII
viginiti duo
23
XXIII
viiginti tres
24
XXIV
viginiti quattuor
25
XXV
viginiti quinque
26
XXVI
viginiti sex
27
XXVII
viginti septem
28
XXVIII
duodetriginita / viginti octo
29
XXIX
undetriginita / viginti novem
30
XXX
triginita
31
XXXI
triginta uno
32
XXXII
triginta duo
33
XXXIII
triginta tress
34
XXXIV
triginita quattuor
35
XXXV
triginta quinque
36
XXXVI
triginta sex
37
XXXVII
triginta septem
38
XXXVIII
duodequadraginta / triginta octo
39
XXXIX
undequadraginta / triginta novem
40
XL
quadraginta
41
XLI
quadraginta unus
42
XLII
quadraginta duo
43
XLIII
quadraginta tres
44
XLIV
quadraginta quattuor
45
XLV
quadraginta quinque
46
XLVI
quadraginta sex
47
XLVII
quadraginta septem
48
XLVIII
duodequinqaginta / quadraginta octo
49
XLIX
undequinqaginta / quadraginta duo
50
L
quinqaginta
International
Adverbial
Multiplier
Distributive
Fractional
1
semel
simplex
singuli
2
bis
duplex
bini
dimidius / semis
3
ter
triplex
terni
triens
4
quater
quadruplex
quaterni
quadrans / teruncius
5
quinquies
quinquiplex
quini
quintans
6
sexies
sexuplex
seni
sextans
7
septimes
septimplex
septeni
septans
8
octies
octuplex
octoni
octans
9
novies
novemplex
noveni
nonus
10
deciens
decemplex
deni
decimus
11
undecies
undecimplex
undeni
undecimus
12
duodecies
duodecimplex
duodeni
uncia
13
terdecies
terdecuplex
terdeni
tertiusdecimus
Challenge 2
Reign (AUC)
Anglicism
Title
Meaning
Praenomen
Meaning
Nomen
Meaning
Cognomen
Meaning
Agnomen
Meaning
218-244
Tarquin the Proud
Rex(?)
King
Lucius
from lux (light)
Tarquinius
from Estruscan Tarchuna
Superbus
proud, splendid
672
Sulla
Dictator*
Dictator
Lucius
" "
Cornelius
Perhaps fr. cornu (horn)
Sulla
unknown
Felix
fortunate
708-709
Julius Caesar
Dictator Perpetuo
Dictator for Life
Gaius
fr. Gavius fr. PIE “rejoicing”
Iulius
Maybe fr. *Iovilios (descended fr. Jove)
Caesar
debated, see Wiktionary
(*) Dictator legibus faciendis et reipublicae constituendae causa (“dictator for the making of laws and for the settling of the constitution”)
Imperial names
726-767: Augustus / Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus (Emperor Caesar, Majestic Son of God)
794-807: Claudius / Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus
Tiberius = of the river Tiber Claudius is perhaps from a Sabine word Germanicus = of Germany
832-834: Titus / Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus
I don’t have an etymology for Titus Flavius is perhaps from flavus (golden) Vespasianus is from Vespasianae, a town
849-851: Nerva / Marcus Cocceius Nerva Caesar Augustus
Marcus = of Mars
I don’t have an etymology of Cocceius Nerva is from nervus (vigour)
891-914: Antoninus Pius / Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius
I don’t have an etymology of Aelius. Hadrianus is from Hadria, a city
I don’t have an etymology of Antoninus Pius = loyal
[I expected more to write about from that name.]
946-964: Septimius Severus / Imperator Caesar Lucius Septimius Severus Eusebes Pertinax Augustus
Septimius = the seventh Severus = severe Eusebes = a type of gem Pertinax = tenacious
991: Balbinus / Imperator Caesar Decimus Caelius Calvinus Balbinus Pius Augustus
Decimus = the tenth
I don’t have an etymology of Caelius
I don’t have an etymology of Calvinus
I don’t have an etymology of Balbinus
I was just thinking, you can classify languages by speakership as:
Super-major: 1,000,000,000+ speakers (this is just English and Mandarin). English is a global lingua franca whereas Mandarin is just the national language of a very populous country, so there is an interesting contrast here.
Major: 100,000,000+ speakers (Hindi, Spanish, French, Standard Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, Indonesian, Urdu, German, Japanese). These are either languages of populous countries (like Indonesian) or post-colonial lingua franca (like Spanish.)
Sub-Major: 10,000,000+ speakers. This is your average national language with official and popular status within one or two countries, like Italian. Also your typical big Indian language (eg. Marathi or Tamil.)
Minor: 1,000,000+ speakers. These languages are usually not national lingua franca and can be quite obscure. The only examples I can find are Catalan and, maybe, Walloon.
Sub-Minor: 100,000+ speakers. Interestingly, it’s easier to find examples for this category. Members include Welsh, Irish, and Greenlandic.
Miniature: 10,000+ speakers. At this point, there are doubts that the language can survive into the next century, but often still hold official status and privileges. Scottish Gaelic is a good example.
Sub-Miniature: 1,000+ speakers. A Swiss village dialect, perhaps?
Obscure: 100+ speakers: A normal tribal language, eg. in Australia.
Moribund: 10+ speakers: Spoken usually by a small group of elders.
Hyper-Moribund: 1+ speaker. Almost extinct.
Extinct.
In general, popular languages are either: Indo-European (most European and Indian languages, and Iranian), Sino-Tibetan (Chinese languages), or Krai-Dai (South-East Asian).
Very notable outliers are Arabic (Semitic), Korean (Koreanic), Japanese (Japonic), and Tamil (Dravidian).
The many indigenous languages of the Americas, Africa, and Australia are in contrast often very obscure.
"When we realize that an educated Japanese can hardly frame a single literary sentence without the use of Chinese resources, that to this day Siamese and Burmese and Cambodgian bear the unmistakable imprint of the Sanskrit and Pali that came in with Hindu Buddhism centuries ago, or that whether we argue for or against the teaching of Latin and Greek, our argument is sure to be studded with words that have come to us from Rome and Athens, we get some indication of what early Chinese culture and Buddhism, and classical Mediterranean civilization have meant in the world’s history.
There are just five languages that have had an overwhelming significance as carriers of culture. They are classical Chinese, Sanskrit, Arabic, Greek, and Latin. In comparison with these, even such culturally important languages as Hebrew and French sink into a secondary position."
Create new Go terms
